As the Southwest continues to experience the worst multi-year drought in 108 years, many utility companies are enforcing strict water restrictions and surcharges. Some cities have even put the damper on car washing and lawn watering.

“The day of having unlimited water, or at least the attitude of having it, are over,” says Andrew Hudsun of the American Waterworks Association. “If you're using more water than your neighbor, you're going to pay for it.”

Perhaps no one knows this more than aggregate producers using more than 1,000 gallons per minute to wash stone and control dust levels.

Of course, the cost of utility water at that rate of use would put any company out in the dust. Instead, many quarries west of the Mississippi River must purchase rights to water shares, which are regulated by state water courts. Colorado Justice Gregory Hobbs, who authored the Citizen's Guide to Colorado Water Law, says Colorado has had a doctrine of water scarcity since 1872. “It has to be different than in the east because of the scarcity of the resource.”

Hobbs says the problems of a prolonged drought will not evaporate overnight. And to ensure that everyone gets a fair share of water, the supply is closely regulated by state engineers. Users must obtain a decree from the water courts after a rigorous procedure of planning, permitting, engineering and processing. Most business owners hire private water lawyers and brokers.

“Tell them what you need and where you need it, and they go from there. So it's really not that difficult, but it does get expensive if you want water,” Hobbs says.

Managing Director of Kansas Aggregate Producers Association, Edward Moses, says Kansas operates according to similar laws. And Moses says the cost of water rights are parted by the severity of the drought. Water shares in the flood plains run $400 to $600, while rights in drought-stricken West Kansas average $1,500 to $2,000 per square acre. He has even seen prices skyrocket to $3,000 per share.

Moses explains that a company operating in West Kansas would need to purchase $35,000 in water shares to produce 100,000 tons of sand in a year. This boosts the consumer cost by $0.35 per ton.

Taxing the aggregate industry through water shares is unfair, Moses says, because 85% of the material produced goes right back into public roads and infrastructure. Instead, the government should focus on the agriculture industry consuming the majority of the water. Aggregates are “the bottom limit,” only consuming two-tenths of the water supply, Moses says.

The drought and cost of water shares also were extremely detrimental to the agriculture and cattle industry, which in turn weakened the local economy and diminished demand for capital improvements.

“(Another) problem with the drought is most of the people who lease the water in a regular year don't have any water anyway, so it becomes a moot point. We have had difficulty in finding anybody,” says Greg Lindsay, Lafarge's rock performance director. “If you can't find a person willing to sell it or lease it to you, that's the problem with a drought. All of a sudden water is not available even though you have the rights to it. If the water isn't there, there is nothing that you can do.”

In the event of a drought, a body of water often cannot accommodate every share. In this instance, water commissioners regulate the flow of water to the companies with the most senior water rights before those with junior rights. Water rights are regulated on a first-come-first-serve basis, but the more senior the rights are, the more a company has to pay.

Bone Dry

Lafarge's Bluestone Quarry near Denver recently encountered problems when its reservoir dried up completely when water levels of the canal feeding it dropped. The Bluestone Quarry was low on the priority list, and when the time came to collect its share, producers were up a creek with a paddle but no water.

At first Lafarge had enough water to operate three days a week, but as the drought progressed it was shut down entirely because an operation with senior rights got the water first. Lindsay says many road builders also shut down last year for lack of water. As a result, construction outfits purchased less aggregate.

To conserve water and eliminate extraneous costs, Lafarge reuses, recirculates and, at times, hoards the water that they have, Lindsay says.

Lafarge built dams at the quarries to hold the run-off in silt ponds along the property. The water then is filtered from pond to pond using gravity and sump pumps. The fines collect on the bottom of the pond, and the water is siphoned off the top. When the water reaches the final pond, it is clean enough to reuse. As slurry fills the pond floors, Lafarge simply builds another or dredges the old.

Lindsay says that a smaller pond surface prevents evaporation, but at the same time you need a large enough surface area to allow ample time for fines to settle. If necessary, Lafarge removes excess silt using cyclones and dewatering screens.

“You are always trying to balance the cost of technology versus the cost of the water and the cost of cleaning out the silt ponds and the cost of how much the silt ponds take up your property.”

Even sand operations built on top of the Arkansas River have had difficulty keeping dredges afloat, says Dodge City Sand General Manager Chris Morgison. Dodge City operates with two dredges, one of which is bottomed out because the water levels are down 8 to 10 ft.

“It makes production tougher,” Morgison says. “Instead of moving the dredge to the sand we are moving sand to the dredge.”

The Palmer Drought Severity Index lists Dodge City, Kan. at near-normal drought levels, but the water still isn't there. Recent rainfalls following last year's record lows are like a drop in a silt pond.

Predicting the Drought

According to the Natural Resources Conservation Center, western water supplies were below the 50% average as of May 1. Stream flow did improve in the Rockies of Colorado, but snowmelt runoff is trickling due to dry soils.

“This year looks okay for Colorado, but there are still concerns because of the long-term (drought) going back two or three years,” says David Miskus, meteorologist for the Joint Agriculture and Weather Facilities. “They need another wet year again for 2003/2004. So they are not out of the woods yet, but they are better than they were.”

Snow on a mountaintop is an easy way to predict water supplies for the summer, but anything beyond is unpredictable. In the past, meteorologists have relied on the El Nino and La Nina cycles to predict precipitation, but this science is not exact.

Miskus explains that El Nino is accompanied by a southern-pacific jet stream, which usually brings heavy rainfall. Yet, a recent El Nino brought only small, sporadic rainfall across southern California while meteorologists were expecting downpours.

Now the West has entered a transition stage between El Nino and La Nina. When La Nina hits, scientists are expecting an exacerbated drought in southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. More central states like Colorado and Kansas should not be affected, and meteorologists can only measure snowpacks and predict the rate at which it melts and evaporates.

When the August sun peaks, the runoff will evaporate, and there is no rainy season in the summer for western states. “It's dry, and it's hot,” Miskus says. Then everyone will go right back to the reservoirs that are still half empty.

“They should probably start conserving now, especially those areas that are in the long-term drought, so they can get by this summer and hopefully get a good wet winter,” he says. “But we'll have to wait and see about that.”

Miskus says aggregate operations should build more silt ponds for water recycling and use any technology available to conserve water. Those built on a higher elevations can rely on snowpacks, but quarries in the valleys might be left in the dust.

This may sound difficult at first, but in the long run western quarries will have cheaper water shares and increased production. Water is an essential element to both commercial industries and living creatures. And when times are tough and resources low, only the strongest and most efficient will survive.

Growth Further Strains Water Supply

Scarce water supplies throughout Colorado have fueled a constant battle between urbanization and agriculture. But a recent study, The Great Plains and Population and Environment Project, suggests the relationship may be more mutualistic than once thought.

Researchers from the University of Colorado and University of Michigan analyzed census data for 27 Colorado Plains counties in eastern Colorado regarding population, productivity and employment. The data collected produced some rather surprising facts.

Colorado State University Researcher, William Parton, says despite a 30% reduction of farmed land due to urbanization, agriculture profits have remained stable.

“It's kind of a mixed message. You're losing land, but your increasing the value of crops and increasing service-sector jobs in agriculture,” Parton says.

Colorado has experienced tremendous development along the front range near I-25. Many of the new land owners have horses, which have enhanced the demand for farmed hay. New residents also are shopping farmer's markets that supply fresh vegetables, and farmers are happily reaping profits.

Lafarge Rock Performance Director Greg Lindsay, says the population boom recently increased profits from residential construction. And now that the population is topping off, Lafarge can begin producing materials to widen the interstate.

Urbanization, however, has fueled a constant economic battle for water — a battle agriculture may be losing. The study indicates that the continued increase in irrigation has helped maintain agriculture throughout the drought. However, watering crops is growing more difficult as urban dwellers and industry slurp up the supply.

Colorado agriculture depends on 90% of that state's water supply. And that supply is growing more expensive due to the increased demand. It also becomes more difficult for farms to sustain water rights as corporations outbid farmers.

In recent years farmers have relied upon the Ogallala Aquafer, technology similar to an oil well that pumps ground water to the surface. This water also is diminishing, and energy costs continue increase the deeper the Aquifer pumps.

“Up until now we've had an ample supply, and competition has been manageable, but looking to the future, it's going to become even more competitive,” Parton says. “Water rights are so expensive, it's hard on new farmers.”
— Adam Madison